


_2X 



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^ 
^ 



U EXACT fiUPMCATE COPY OF CHAPTER VIII 



IN THE 



HISTORY 



OF THE 




eventy-Third Regiment Illinois Infantry 
^olanteers. 



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COL. JAQUESSS VISIT TO RICHMOND, YA. 



* JULY, 1S6^. 1 



Its Part in the Presidential Campaign of thlt Year. 



-&£" 



-sir 



*? 



/ 



fi Complete F^isto^y 




OF THE 



"PREACHER* REGIMENT," 

The Seventy-Third Illinois Volunteer Infantry, 

SENT PER EXPRESS ON RECEIPT OR $3.00. 

It has over 600 pages of matter, and treats at consid- \ 
erable length and some detail on 
the services of 

Man's 014 Division with tie Any of tie CuteM, 1862-65. 




BATTLE-FIELD— COTTON-GIN— FRANKLIN, TENNESSEE. { 

THE CHATTANOOGA-CHICKAMAUGA CAMPAIGN, 

INCLUDING THE CIPHER DISPATCHES, 

given in full. The Hood campaign in Tennessee, 
1864, and services of OPDYCKE'S BRIGADE, in 
connection therewith, take up an entire chapter. 

Inclose $3.00, giving name and express office, 

plainly written, to 

InL. M, NEMLIN, 

Spfingfield, 111. 



SKETCH 



COLONEL JAMES F. JAQUESS. 



CHAPTER VIII 

OF THE 



History of the 7 3 d Illinois Regiment 



534 JAMES F. JAQUESS, 



CHAPTER VIII. 

COLONEL JAMES F. JAQUESS — HIS LIFE AND SERVICES — MINISTER, 
EDUCATOR, SOLDIER — HIS VISIT TO RICHMOND IN 1864 AND 
INTERVIEW WITH JEFFERSON DAVIS — THE OBJECT AND RESULTS 
OF HIS MISSION — THE COLONEL'S CAREER SINCE THE WAR — THE 
REUNION AT FAIRMOUNT IN 1889. 

James Frazier Jaquess was born near Evansville, 
Indiana, November 18, 1819. His grandfather, Jona- 
than Jaquess, with a large family of grown-up sons and 
daughters, emigrated to that region from Kentucky in 
the year 1815, bringing with him what was in that day .a 
large fortune. He purchased a large tract of land, and 
settled his children on farms around him, where he 
lived in a truly patriarchal style in their midst for nearly 
thirty years. Jonathan Jaquess was an ardent Meth- 
odist, and named his sons after the bishops and noted 
divines of that denomination. One of these sons, Jon- 
athan Garrettson Jaquess, was the father of the future 
colonel. 

The boy, James, grew up to manhood on a farm, 
disciplined to hard work, good morals-, and strict the- 
ology. After a preparatory course of education at the 
country schools, he entered the oldest and best-endowed 
college in the West, located at Greencastle, Indiana, and 
known to fame as " Indiana Asbury University." Here 
he pursued the full classical course, and graduated with 
high honors in the class of 1845. He afterwards re- 
ceived from his alma mater the degrees of A. M. 
and D. D. 



LAWYER, MIXISTEH, EDUCATOR. 535 

Young Jaquess had intended to be a lawyer, and 
pursued the study of his chosen profession with such 
diligence, that he was admitted to the bar in 1846. 
But a strong religious conviction forced a change in his 
plans, and without entering upon active practice, he 
studied divinity, and in 1847 was licensed to preach, 
and admitted to the Illinois Conference of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church. 

He was twice married — first, before his graduation, to 
Mary Sciple, who lived but two years thereafter ; and 
again, about the time he entered the ministry, to Sarah 
E. Steel, who still survives. His only child by the first 
marriage was a daughter, Margaret, now Mrs. Henry A. 
Castle, of Saint Paul, Minnesota; and his only child by 
the second marriage was his son William, the " drum- 
mer-boy " of the 73d, now residing at Tunica, Missis- 
sippi. 

After two years of " circuit-riding" in Southern 
Illinois, Mr. Jaquess was, in 1849, chosen president of 
Illinois Female College at Jacksonville, Illinois, and 
entered at once upon its responsible duties. Here he 
remained for six years, and achieved an unqualified 
success. Hundreds of educated and accomplished 
women, scattered through the whole Mississippi Valley 
and beyond, look back to their student-life at Jackson- 
ville with tender memories, and still regard President 
and Mrs. Jaquess with veneration, as their parents in 
good manners and elegant learning. 

Resigning this position in 1855, Mr. Jaquess preached 
for one year at Paris, Edgar County, Illinois, and was 
then prevailed on to re-enter the educational field. A 
new Methodist college had been established at Quincy, 
Illinois, based upon the then new idea of co-education. 






536 CHAPLAIN J A Q UESS. 

It was a male and female college of high grade, and Mr. 
Jaquess was elected president. He retained this posi- 
tion, adding to his reputation for profound erudition 
and executive ability, until he resigned it to enter the 
military service in 1861. 

During his whole career as a preacher and teacher, 
Mr. Jaquess was a man of strongly marked individ- 
uality. His address was polished and winning, his 
presence magnetic to a marked degree. He influenced 
all with whom he came in contact, and made friends 
by the thousand in all parts of the country. He was 
in great demand in the pulpit and on the platform, his 
oratory being of the earnest, electric kind, that was popu- 
lar with all classes of people, from the ripest scholar to 
the humblest laborer or frontiersman. He was never 
abashed in any compa'ny, and no man ever felt abashed 
in his. He took a living interest in all public affairs; 
but in his chosen sphere as a Christian minister he 
shone to unsurpassed advantage. Whenever it was an- 
nounced that he was to preach, whether at a city church, 
a cross-road school-house, or a backwoods camp-meeting, 
hundreds flocked to hear, and went away to praise. 

In September, 1861, Mr. Jaquess was commissioned 
by Governor Richard Yates, his long-time and intimate 
personal friend, at Jacksonville, as chaplain of the 6th 
Illinois Cavalry. This opened an opportunity for an 
approach to the scene of active warfare, and at the 
same time for a wide sphere of religious usefulness, 
which he accepted with alacrity. He spent the winter 
with his regiment in Kentucky. Late in March, 1862, 
Chaplain Jaquess, having received, through rebel citi- 
zens at Paducah, intimations of the proposed attack on 



PERSEVERANCE REWARDED. 537 

Grant at Pittsburg Landing, hastened thither, arriving 
just before the historic battle of Shiloh. He remained 
on the field during that battle, rendering conspicuous 
service in organizing for the care of the wounded, and 
receiving his first " baptism of fire " in the shape of a 
bullet-hole through his hat. 

After Shiloh, feeling his military ardor aroused, and 
better appreciating the desperate character of the strug- 
gle in which the country was engaged, our patriotic chap- 
lain asked the privilege of raising and commanding a 
" Methodist Regiment " for the war. Recruiting was 
suspended at that time, but Governor Yates secured 
from President Lincoln permission to raise a special 
regiment, and the embryo colonel set to work with bis 
accustomed energy and enthusiasm, about June 1, 
1862. He succeeded poorly at first. It was the busy 
harvest season in Southern Illinois. The enlistment 
fever of a few months before had been cooled down by 
the refusal of the authorities to accept any more 
soldiers. Many proposed captains attempted to r;iise 
their companies, but failed, and others were authorized 
to try in different localities. Perseverance and the 
process of consolidating squads seemed about to suc- 
ceed, however, when, as August approached, the sudden 
issue of the President's call for three hundred thousand 
men, soon followed by another call for as many more, 
swelled each meagre squad into an overflowing com- 
pany, which soon confronted the new colonel with an 
embarassment of martial riches. The companies ren- 
dezvoused at Camp Butler early in August, as else- 
where narrated, and were formed into the 73d Regi- 
ment of Illinois Infantry Volunteers. 



538 INDORSED BY CONGRESSMEN. 

The story of Colonel Jaquess's service with the regi- 
ment is told in the other chapters of this book. This 
chapter is devoted to his biography, and to such epi- 
sodes of his army life as were not directly connected 
with the regiment in the field, notably his secret serv- 
ice, and his celebrated visit to Richmond, in 1864. 
One or two other matters, not related elsewhere, may 
with propriety be briefly mentioned here. 

In April, 1864, while the regiment was encamped at 
Loudon, Tennessee, a meeting of the officers of Illinois 
regiments was held, with Major Henry A. Hust (27th 
Illinois), of Chicago, as president, and Captain J. 
Morris Morgan (22d Illinois), of Alton, as secretary. 
This meeting adopted the following resolution, which 
was sent home and published in nearly all the papers 
of Illinois : 

" Resolved, That having seen the name of Colonel J. F. 
Jaquess, 73d Illinois, mentioned in the press of our State as a can- 
didate for Congress from the State at large, we recognize in Colo- 
nel Jaquess the brave and accomplished soldier, the Christian gen- 
tleman and scholar, the man of pure and elevated patriotism, 
characteristics peculiarly fitting him for a seat in the councils of 
the Nation at this perilous crisis, and though, for the present, 
deprived of the privileges of citizenship, yet while fighting for the 
very existence of the State, we claim the right to be heard, and 
we ask that the merits of our gallant brother in arms, whose devo- 
tion to his country has been sealed in actual bloody contact with 
its enemies, be recognized in his nomination by the Union State 
Convention which meets at Springfield on the 25th of May next." 

This action was taken without the knowledge or 
solicitation of Colonel Jaquess, and, of course, could not 
be followed up by the effective personal canvass at 
home necessary to success. Nevertheless, a very con- 
siderable vote was cast for him at the convention. 
This was the only instance, we believe, in his career 



BOY OF CHICK A MA UGA. 539 

when he was even impliedly a candidate for political 
office. 

At the battle of Chickamauga, the colonel's fourteen- 
year-old son, Willie, the drummer-boy of Company H 
(now clerk of the district court of Tunica County, Mis- 
sissippi), was captured by the rebels in the thickest of 
the fight. This incident was afterwards made the sub- 
ject of a juvenile romance entitled "The Boy of Chick- 
amauga," which had a wide circulation. The following 
beautiful description of the event was written on the 
field by B. F. Taylor, the famous war correspondent of 
the Chicago Journal, and published in that paper : 

"Beside Colonel Jaquess, of the 73d Illinois, rude his son, a 
lad, a bright, brave little fellow, who believed in his father and 
feared nothing. Right up to the enemy, right up anywhei-e, if 
the father went, there rode the boy. But when the bullets swept 
in sheets, and grape and canister cut rugged roads through the 
columns of blue and splashed them with red, the father bade his 
young orderly back out of the fiery gust. The boy wheeled his 
horse and rode for the hospital; the hospital was captured, and the 
boy is a prisoner. Poor little waif; flung out by the turbulent sea 
of war into the hands of the enemy ! I know not if the boy has a 
mother; but, if not, there are gentle, womanly hearts enough in 
the land to ache for the little prisoner, and to pray that the slip 
of a boy may be set down safely again beside the stout colonel." 

Which he was, a few days later, having escaped by 
stratagem from his custodians. 

But it is time to begin our story of the visit to 
Richmond. In May, 1863, Colonel Jaquess, by letter 
and by personal interview, interested General Rose- 
crans, the commander of the Army of the Cumberland, 
in his idea that, by a personal visit to the South, he 
could commit influential men there to an extensive 
peace movement, and possibly secure from the rebel 
leaders some unofficial overtures in that direction. At 



540 A MORAL FORCE, 

length General Rosecrans sent by a messenger to Wash- 
ington the following letter : 

'Head-quarters Department of the Cumberland,) 
Murfreesboro, Tennessee, May 21, 1863. j 

To His Excellency, the President of the United States: 

"The Rev. Dr. Jaquess, commanding the 73d Illinois — a man 
of character — has submitted to me a letter proposing a personal 
mission to the South. After maturely weighing his plan and con- 
sidering well his character, I am decidedly of the opinion that the 
public interests will be promoted by permitting him to go as he 
proposes. 

" I do not anticipate the results that he seems to expect, but 
believe that a moral force will be generated by his mission that 
will more than compensate for his temporary absence from his 
regiment. 

" His letter is herein inclosed, and the bearer of this can fully 
explain Colonel Jaquess's plans and purposes. 
"Very respectfully, 

" W. S. Rosecrans, Major General." 

The letter was given to President Lincoln by the 
messenger, and a full explanation made. The President 
had known Colonel Jaquess personally for fifteen years, 
and had every confidence in his patriotism and integrity. 
He finally decided to permit the proposed trip, but 
stipulated that the colonel should go on his own re- 
sponsibility, and should make no overtures, but receive 
and report any made to him, from whatever source. 

The colonel left the army in Tennessee at once, and 
went to Baltimore, on the President's authority, where 
he reported to General Schenck. Thence he was sent 
to General Dix, at Fortress Monroe, who, after long 
delay, permitted him to go to the rebel lines in a flag- 
of-truce boat. He went to Petersburg, where he re- 
mained three weeks in constant communication with 
influential but unofficial personages, who all admitted 
that they were weary of the war, hopeless of success, 



VISIT TO RICHMOND. 541 

and ready to give up slavery to secure peace, but were 
so held in check by a despotic government at Richmond 
that they dare not, as yet, move effectively in that di- 
rection. The colonel returned to Baltimore, reported 
in writing to the President, waited some time for further 
instructions, but receiving none, returned to his regi- 
ment, arriving just in time to participate in the bloody 
battle of Chickamauga. 

It afterwards transpired that the President never 
personally received the colonel's report. When in- 
formed of the facts some months later, Mr. Lincoln 
immediately realized that the time was then more nearly 
ripe for such an effort, and at least highly propitious 
for securing from the Confederate chiefs a declared ul- 
timatum, which would be, in many ways, extremely 
valuable. Hence he again detailed Colonel Jaquess for 
special service, and, in order to obviate objections in 
high military circles, requested Mr. J. R. Gilmore to 
accompany him. And then ensued the real and genuine 
"visit to Richmond" of July, 1864. 

In Dr. Eddy's "Patriotism of Illinois," Volume I, 
we find a graphic and detailed report of this interesting 
historical event. As Dr. Eddy was a life-long friend of our 
colonel, in frequent personal communication with him, 
it may be assumed that the narrative, as there given, 
was duly authorized. This narrative is in the easy 
style of a newspaper interview, in which form, in fact, 
it originally appeared in Dr. Eddy's paper, the North- 
western Christian Advocate, of Chicago, written down, 
however, by the worthy editor himself. We quote : 

" A rap at the door of our sanctum ! Enter a tall, somewhat 
slim, and altogether impressive form in the uniform of a Union 
colonel. Few men carry in their faces more character than Colonel 



542 DR. EDDY'S ACCOUNT. 

Jaquess. With classic forehead ; large blue eyes, so deep that, as 
Emerson says, ' one may fall into them ;' hair, and neatly trimmed 
beard, both wearing ' the silvery livery of advised age ;' firm, con- 
scientious and dauntless, — he is just the man to hurl his gauntlet 
at danger — fight his way into, or become a self-appointed ambassa- 
dor, at Richmond. Reluctantly he told us his story. 

"The incidents of the ride to the city, and the formalities 
which resulted in an interview between Colonel Jaquess, Mr. Gil- 
more, President Davis, and Mr. Benjamin, are already recorded 
by Mr. Gil more. Colonel Jaquess states that he did not share 
Mr. Gilmore's fears respecting the important question of a safe 
deliverance from the rebel capital. 

"The evening of the 17th — July, 1864 — finds the four persons 
above mentioned seated in a room in the Confederate State De- 
partment. After the formal introduction, it was fully agreed upon 
that in the discussion which Avas about to follow, no personal 
offense was to be taken, even though it became necessary to em- 
ploy plain language, and Colonel Jaquess says that he accepted 
the temporary status of affairs, and studiously and politely em- 
ployed the terms, ' Mr. President,' and ' Confederacy.' 

"Mr. Benjamin's first and most j)ersistent effort was to secure 
an admission that the embassy was official, and after laboring thus 
in vain for thirty minutes, he then attempted to browbeat the 
colonel by employing the term ' sj)y,' and allusions to the ordinary 
fate of such. 

"These tactics failing, Colonel Jaquess had an opportunity to 
open a long, serious, and exceedingly plain conversation with Mr. 
Davis, carefully selecting such points as in themselves gave least 
room for controversy. He emphasized the statement that he was 
present only in his individual capacity since he believed that neither 
of the contending powers would accept commissioners from the 
other, and thus settle existing difficulties, and that negotiation 
would only end' in wrangling, with the more desperate alienation, 
unless certain points could be previously adjusted by an unofficial 
delegation as a basis for a further official discussion. The colonel 
therefore remarked : 

" ' Mr. President, I came on my own responsibility to prepare 
the way, and I hope that we, as Christian gentlemen, may succeed 
in discussing the question fully, freely, and frankly. I have long 
believed that our troubles were necessary 4o teach a threefold lesson : 

" ' 1st. That the North might believe that the terms " secession," 



THE MEMORABLE INTERVIEW. 543 

" separation," and " independence," when employed by Southerners, 
meant something. [At this the President was manifestly pleased.] 

" ' 2d. That the South should learn that one Southerner can not 
whip five Yankees. And — 

" '3d. That foreign nations might learn that the United States 
can never be defeated, or insulted with impunity.' 

" Mr. Davis then remarked, with a degree of satisfaction, that 
'the South had done its own fighting without iad or foreign sym- 
pathy.' Colonel Jaquess replied with a commendable desire to 
assure Mr. Davis that the South would not lack further oppor- 
tunities for display of valor, that ' we in the North have but one 
sentiment, viz., that of a vigorous prosecution of the war, and that 
no man could be elected President upon any other platform. We 
regard you as the aggressor, and if one party must lose its life, we 
feel not only at liberty but under obligations to take yours. We 
have a "Peace Party," but you can not afford to trust it; for our 
masses are against you, and, Mr. Davis, you mistake the spirit of 
our people. We respect and love you, and in case of the sudden 
termination of the war, millions of Northern money would flow 
south to relieve your destitute and suffering. Indeed, we would 
sustain our President should he, in such case, issue his proclama- 
tion of universal amnesty.' Mr. Davis, with the evident expecta- 
tion of shaming this speech, replied, ' You have poorly manifested 
your "love" in your conduct of the war.' Replied the colonel 
promptly, ' O, we are not just now making friends — we are fighting 
rebellion.' Mr. Davis asserted that he foresaw this struggle, this 
bloodshed, etc., and while in Congress strove to avert it. 'Before 
God,' said he, 'I have not a drop of this blood on my skirts.' 
The colonel says he barely escaped the impulse of replying that ' this 
would be a dangerous appeal to carry before God.' Davis then pro- 
ceeded with a long dissertation on 'States' rights,' etc., alluding to 
the Declaration of American Independence and its initial principle, 
that the right to govern depends upon the consent of the governed, 
and added, 'If we of the South talk of peace and continued union, 
we will thereby confess that we have blundered in beginning this 
war.' Colonel Jaquess thinks that Mr. Davis's harangue would 
compare favorably with the prevailing style of Copperhead speeches 
in the North, and would be fully indorsed by the late Peace 
Party. The next effort of our worthy colonel was to change the 
drift of the conversation and to obtain the rebel ultimatum. Mr. 
Davis asserted that the Southern people have a deep-seated hatred 
of the Northerners. The Northern reply was simply, ' I have 



544 SEPARATION OR ANNIHILATION. 

failed to discover it,' and the colonel added, 'We are told that were 
an armistice for ninety days agreed upon, our people could not be 
induced to resume hostilities.' ' 0/ said Mr. D., 'I am in favor 
of an armistice if you will admit oar independence ; for we are 
bound to have separation or annihilation!' 'Then, Mr. Davis, you 
will obtain annihilation; for our people are determined you shall 
not establish the doctrine of secession. Would you come back into 
the Union as a confederacy if we would give constitutional guaran- 
tees of your claims in the matter of slavery, etc.?' At this point 
Mr. Benjamin, who had been writing fbr a long time, blurted out 
with volcanic heat and impatience : ' If the throat of every slave 
in the Confederacy were cut, we would have nothing but separation!' 
Mr. Davis assented, and reiterated his alternative of ' separation or 
annihilation,' and again received the emphatic consolation that he 
would, in that case, inevitably be accommodated with the coveted 
annihilation. Mr. Gilmore here asked how they would be satisfied 
with the plan of submitting the question to the people, and allowing 
them to vote for Mr. Davis as the secession and Mr. Lincoln as the 
Union candidate ? ' Yes,' said the colonel, 'let the majority de- 
cide.' The reply was from Mr. Davis, with an attempt at severity, 
' You can do that in your consolidated form, but I have no right to 
ask my people thus to vote.' And here followed that heretical, 
despotic, anti-republican sentiment from the arch-rebel : ' We have 
left you, to rid ourselves of the despotism of majorities.' The colonel sug- 
gested to Mr. Davis that he had better not let the Southern people 
know this, and received the assurance that he was at liberty ' to pro- 
claim it from every house-top,' from the improvement of which in- 
vitation the colonel was ' prevented by circumstances.' 

"Mr. Benjamin, in his account of the occasion asserts, for 
effect, that at this point, Mr. Davis wished to close the interview. 
Colonel Jaquess positively contradicts the statement, and asserts 
that he was the first to indicate such a desire. Three times did the 
colonel arise, and three times was he detained by a renewal of the 
conversation. Once Colonel Jaquess asked Mr. Davis if they 
would ever meet again. ' O yes,' was the reply. Colonel Ja- 
quess — 'My Northern friends say I look like "Jeff. Davis."' 
Mr. Davis — ' You ought not to consider it a compliment.' Colonel 
Jaquess — ' I do not consider it a left-handed one by any means.' 
Mr. Davis — ' Your resemblance to myself occurred to me when you 
entered the room.' Colonel Jaquess — 'And I had the corresponding 
thought at the same time.' 



BUSINESS— NO'I ROMANCE! 545 

"Then followed a talk for twenty minutes about ancestry, etc., 
in which both parties forgot that they were enemies, at the con- 
clusion of which, Colonel Jaquess for the third time arose, saying, 
1 When may I come again ?' ' When you come to tell me that the 
North is willing to let us govern ourselves in our own way !' The 
colonel extended his hand, which was warmly grasped by both of 
the President's, and thus closed this remarkable interview. 

"We have read Mr. Gilmore's published accounts, and have heard 
his two subsequent lectures upon the same topic; and now, having 
talked three or four times with Colonel Jaquess, we feel that the 
trip to Richmond was far from a mere romantic expedition, and 
that the accounts of Mr. Gilmore are far too flippant and super- 
ficial, while under the colonel's grave recounting it rises to the 
dignity of a providential mission. Certain it is that the effort of 
Mr. Benjamin, in his circular, to avert the consequences of the 
published statements, and his avowal of the designs and wishes, 
too, of the Southern leaders, went far, O so far, to gird up the 
loins of noble Northern freemen for the struggle in which God 
gave us victory on the 8th of last November." 

The foregoing, having been incorporated by Dr. 
Eddy in his work, " Patriotism of Illinois," it is, as 
before stated, safe to assume that the statements made 
are true, and sanctioned by Colonel Jaquess. The ac- 
count was written while the events of which it treats 
were new and fresh in the public mind, and has, so far 
as we know, met with no contradiction. 

It is impossible to estimate the value of the advan- 
tage derived by the National Union party in the polit- 
ical campaign of 1864 as a result of this and other 
"peace missions." The mission of Colonel Jaquess was 
first in importance, because he sought and obtained an 
interview with the highest officer in the Confederacy, 
and heard deliberately stated the rebel ultimatum, by 
the representative and official head of the rebellion. The 
other " peace mission," the one undertaken by Messrs. 
Clay, Holcombe, and Saunders, from a base of opera- 
tions across the border, in Canada, was clearly working 

35 



546 MR- GREELEY'S STATEMENT. 

in harmony with the "Peace Party/' to secure a com- 
mon purpose, the defeat of the National Union Party. 
One result of Colonel Jaquess's visit was the proof and 
demonstration of the utter insincerity, want of au- 
thority, and want of purpose — beyond affecting or com- 
passing the outcome of the pending Presidential elec- 
tion — of the above named Peace Commissioners. 

The late Horace Greeley, in Volume II, of his "Anier- 
ic;in Conflict;' on pages 665-6 thereof, after devoting 
attention to the Clay, Holcombe, and Saunders mission, 
has this to say concerning that of Colonel Jaquess and 
Mr. Gilmore. Mr. Greeley, having been deputed by 
President Lincoln, to go to Niagara, and confer with 
Clay, Holcombe, and Saunders, was all the more thor- 
oughly posted, and qualified, after so doing, to judge as 
to the beneficent result of Colonel Jaquess's trip to 
Richmond. Mr. Greeley's statement, which fully dis- 
closes Mr. Jefferson Davis's ultimatum, reads: 

"But happily another negotiation, even more irregular and 
wholly clandestine, had simultaneously been in progress at Rich- 
mond with a similar result. Rev. Colonel James F. Jaquess, 73d 
Illinois, with Mr. J. R. Gilmore, of New York, had, with Presi- 
dent Lincoln's knowledge, but without his formal permission, paid 
a visit to the Confederate capital on a peace errand, being allowed 
to pass through the lines of both armies for the purpose. 

••Arrived in Richmond, they addressed a joint letter to Judah 
P. Benjamin, Secretary of State, requesting an interview with 
President Davis, which was accorded ; and a long, familiar, earnest 
colloquy ensued, wherein the Confederate chief presented his ulti- 
matum in these terms: 

" ' I desire peace as much as you do ; I deplore bloodshed as 
much as you do ; but I feel that not one drop of the blood shed 
in this war is on my hands. I can look up to my God and say 
this. I tried all in my power to avert this war. I saw it com- 
ing, and for twelve years I worked night and day to prevent it, 
but I could not. The North was mad and blind. It would not 



THA T " UL TIM A T UM. " 54 7 

let us govern ourselves, and so the war came, and now it must go 
on till the last man of this generation falls in his tracks, and his 
children seize his musket and fight our battle, unless you acknowl- 
edge our right to self-government. We are not fighting for slavery ; we 
are fighting for independence, and that, or extermination, 
we will have.'" 

"Again, at parting, Mr. Davis bade them: 

"'Say to Mr. Lincoln from me that I shall at any time 
be pleased to receive proposals for peace on the basis of our 
independence. It will be useless to approach me with any other.' 

"Thus it was not only incontestably settled, but proclaimed, 
through the volunteered agency of two citizens, that the war must 
go on until the Confederacy should be recognized as an independ- 
ent power, or until it should be utterly, finally overthrown. The 
knowledge of this fact was worth more than a victory to the 
National cause. For, though the Confederate chiefs had ever 
held but one language ou this point — had at no time given any 
one reason to believe that they might be reconciled to the Union, 
it was habitually assumed by the opposition in the loyal States that 
they were fighting not against the Union, but against Abolition ; and 
that they might easily be placated and won to loyalty, were but 
the Democratic party restored to power." 

It will be observed that in the former selection ap- 
pears an admission from Davis that the South began 
the war, and that the rebels could not cease fighting or 
submit their causes of complaint to a peaceful arbitra- 
ment, or " talk of peace and union" without confessing 
they had gone wrong in beginning it. In the latter 
selection, it is shown that Mr. Davis declared they were 
not fighting for slavery, but for independence, "and 
that, or extermination, they would have." 

It is easily seen how effectually Colonel Jaquess's 
mission proved the utter uselessness and fallacy of the 
Peace Party in the North, paralyzed it, neutralized or 
counteracted its influence for evil, and built up and 
strengthened the National Party, by convincing hun- 
dreds and thousands of voters of the hopelessness of 



54 S RES UL TS A CCOMPLISHED. 

ending the war in any other way than by crushing the 
Rebellion by force of arms. The accessions to the 
ranks of voters of the party headed by Abraham 
Lincoln continued steadily, enlistments in the army 
increased, and the result was unexpectedly grand, in 
November, 1864. 

We have, lately, carefully re-read the account of 
" Our Visit to Richmond," by J. R. Gilmore, as it ap- 
pears in the Atlantic Monthly of September, 1864. At 
the beginning of the account Mr. Gilmore gives four 
reasons, of the half dozen, he found for making the 
visit. The strongest of which — the second — is that it 
was necessary and desirable to tear off the mask which 
concealed the real purposes and "low schemes" of 
C. C. Clay and his fellow peace commissioners at 
Niagara. It was important to demonstrate that the 
" rebel envoys " were not clothed with authority to 
negotiate for peace, for or on behalf of the Confederacy; 
that, therefore, their pretended efforts in that direction 
were dishonest and hypocritical, and intended to help 
the Northern Peace Party, by appearing to throw on 
the Government or Administration the responsibility of 
a continuance of the war. The visit to Richmond, ac- 
cording to Mr. Gilmore, fully accomplished these ob- 
jects. The third reason, as stated, would seem rather 
to be a reason why he went to Richmond — to open the 
way, remove difficulties, and enable Colonel Jaquess to 
get there. They worked harmoniously together, as 
would-be expected, when it was supposed their all was 
at stake. That they got in, Mr. Gilmore says, was 
perhaps due to himself; that they got out, was due al- 
together to Colonel Jaquess. Mr. Gilmore says : " A 
more cool, more brave, more self-reliant, and more self- 



ARRIVE AT RICHMOND. 549 

devoted man than that quiet ' Western Parson,' it was 
never my fortune to encounter." 

It was on the morning of July 16th that the colo- 
nel and his companion took leave of General Butler at 
his head-quarters, and started on their way to Richmond. 
At about three o'clock P. M. of the same day they 
approached the rebel lines, and soon received directions 
as to where the exchange commissioner, Judge Ould, 
might be found. Following directions, it was but a 
short time before they found Judge Ould and others, 
were introduced all around, and entered into conversa- 
tion on topics related to the conduct of the war, treat- 
ment of prisoners, and the object of the visit they 
were on. In order not to afford the visitors an oppor- 
tunity to view the fortifications, the judge postponed 
starting to Richmond until after sundown. On start- 
ing, Judge Ould, in his carriage, led the way, while the 
colonel and Gilmore followed behind, in an ambulance 
drawn by a pair of mules, with a stout colored man as 
driver. One Javins, whom Mr. Gilmore denominates 
" our shadow," occupied the same seat, sitting between 
Colonel Jaquess and his companion. In this manner 
they passed within the fortifications, and the line of 
troops, and by ten o'clock that Saturday night they 
were in the heart of the rebel capital. Alighted at the 
doorway of the Spotswood Hotel, the colonel and Gil- 
more were shown without delay to room No. 60, in the 
fourth story. Supper was provided and partaken of 
in the same room where they slept that night, and 
breakfasted the next morning. We suppose they slept 
some ; but, disturbed by a feeling of anxiety and spec- 
ulation, it is scarcely probable they slept well. 



550 PRELIMINARIES. 

After breakfast, Sunday morning, a note was pre- 
pared, which reads thus : 

" Spots wood House, 1 

" Richmond, Virginia, July 17, 1864. 1 

"Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State, etc. : 

" Dear Sir, — The undersigned respectfully solicit an interview 
with President Davis. They visit Richmond only as private citi- 
zens, and have no official character or authority ; but they are 
acquainted with the views of the United States Government, and 
with the sentiments of the Northern people, relative to an adjustment 
of the differences existing between the North and the South, and 
earnestly hope that a free interchange of views between President 
Davis and themselves may open the way to such official negotiations as 
will result in restoring peace to the two sections of our distracted 
country. They, therefore, ask an interview with the President, 
and awaiting your reply are, truly and respectfully, yours." 

This note was called for, as previously agreed upon, 
and delivered to the party addressed. Mr. Benjamin 
sent his compliments in return, accompanied by an ex- 
pression of a desire to meet Colonel Jaquess and Mr. 
Gilmore at the State Department. Yielding to this 
desire, as well as to their own inclinations, they re- 
paired at once to the department presided over by Mr. 
"Benjamin, which was located in the north-west room of 
the "United States" Custom-house. Judge Ould, who 
had accompanied the visitors, introduced them to Mr. 
Benjamin, and an informal interview was held, during 
which Mr. Benjamin seemed very anxious to learn 
whether Mr. Lincoln had, "in any ivay, authorized you 
to come here," and the time was fixed for a more ex- 
tended and authoritative interchange of views, when 
Mr. Davis would be present and join in it. Nine 
o'clock in the evening of that same day was appointed 
for the meeting. The day, from near noon until about 
the time for the interview, was passed by the visitors 



MR. OIL MORE 'S A CCO UNT. 551 

in their room, conversing with the judge, or watching 
the people as they passed by in the street. Promptly 
on time, the visitors were at the State Department, 
where Mr. Davis had previously arrived. Mr. Gilmore's 
account states : 

" Mr. Benjamin occupied his previous seat at the tahle. At his 
right sat a spare, thin-featured man, with iron-gray hair and beard, 
and a clear gray eye, full of life and vigor. He had a broad, 
massive forehead, and a mouth and chin denoting great energy 
and strength of will. His face was emaciated, much wrinkled, 
but his features were good, especially his eyes — though one of them 
bore a scar, apparently made by some sharp instrument. He wore 
a suit of grayish brown, evidently of foreign manufacture, and, 
as he rose, I saw that he was about five feet ten inches high, 
with a slight stoop in his shoulders. His manners were simple, 
easy, and quite fascinating ; and he threw an indescribable charm 
into his voice as he extended his hand and said to us : 'I am glad 
to see you, gentlemen. You are very welcome to Richmond.' 

"And this was the man who was President of the United States 
under Franklin Pierce, and who is now the heart, soul, and brains 
of the Southern Confederacy. His manners put me entirely at my 
ease; the colonel would be at his ease if he stood before Csesar." 

Mr. Gilmore then proceeds with the interview between 
Colonel Jaquess and the Confederate President, which 
has been already quoted from Dr. Eddy in the more 
correct and significant language of the colonel himself. 
According to Mr. Gilmore's report, when the visitors 
retired, Mr. Davis took Colonel Jaquess's hand in both 
his own and said to him : " Colonel, I respect your char- 
acter and your motives, find I wish you well. I wish 
you every good I can wish you, consistently with the 
interests of the Confederacy." 

In closing his account of the interview, Mr. Gil- 
more says : 

"The quiet, straightforward bearing and magnificent moral 
courage of our ' fighting parson,' had evidently impressed Mr. 



552 SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES. 

Davis very favorably. When we went out, Mr. Benjamin called 
Judge Ould, wbo had been waiting during the whole interview — 
two hours — at the other end of the hall, and we passed down the 
stairway together. As I put my arm within that of the judge, 
he said to me: 

"'Well, what is the result?' 'Nothing but war — war to the 
knife.' ' Ephraim is joined to his idols. Let him alone,' added the 
colonel solemnly. ... As we climbed the long, rickety stairs 
wliich led to our room in the fourth story, one of us said to our 
companion : ' We can accomplish nothing more by remaining here. 
Suppose we shake the sacred soil from our feet to-morrow?' 
'Very well. At what hour will you start?' He replied, 'The 
earlier the better. As near daybreak as may be, to avoid the sun.' 
'We can't be ready before ten o'clock. The mules are quartered 
six miles out.' ' Very well — ten o'clock then, let it be — we '11 be 
ready.' We bade the judge good-night at the landing, and en- 
tered our apartment." 

The visitors passed their second night at the Spots- 
wood House not without incident or disturbance. Next 
morning they had breakfast, and newspapers with sensa- 
tional reports. They were all ready and waiting at 
the appointed hour; but no Judge Ould or mule-team 
and ambulance came. Eleven o'clock came, then twelve, 
then one o'clock, and the delay caused some anxiety 
and conjecture. Various thoughts flitted through Mr. 
Gilmore's mind ; thoughts of home, family, and friends, 
and likewise of close confinement in Castle Thunder or 
other Bastile. Gilmore paced back and forth, then 
turned to Javins, and said: "Will you oblige me by 
stepping into the hall? My friend and I would have 
a few words together." 

As Javins passed out, Gilmore, addressing Colonel 
Jaquess, said : " Ould is more than three hours late ! 
What does it mean ?" 

The colonel, withdrawing his attention from the 
reading of the newspapers, but betraying no uneasiness 



TRUST IN GOD. 553 

at Ould's delay, replied : " It looks badly, but I ask no 
odds of them. We may have to show we are men. 
We have tried to serve the country ; that is enough. 
Let them hang us, if they like." 

While saying this, the colonel took off his spectacles 
and quietly rubbed the glasses with his hankerchief. 

" Colonel," exclaimed Gilmore, " you are a trump ; 
the bravest man I ever knew." To which the colonel 
replied : " I trust in God, that is all." 

Mr. Gilmore says these words " convey no idea of 
the sublime courage which shone in the colonel's eye, 
and lighted up his every feature. I felt rebuked, and 
turned away to hide my emotion." 

After a little time there was heard a rap at the door, 
and Judge Ould entered. 

" Good evening," he said. 

"Good evening," we replied. 

Ould — " Well, gentlemen, if you are ready, we '11 
walk round to the Libby." 

Says Mr. Gilmore: 

" My worst fears were realized. We were prisoners. A cold 
tremor passed over me, and my tongue refused its office. . . . 
I turned to the colonel. He stood drawn up to his full height, 
looking at Ould. Not a feature of his fine face moved, but his 
large gray eye was beaming with a sort of triumph. I have met 
brave men, men who have faced death a hundred times without 
quailing ; but I never met a man who had the moral grandeur of 
that man. His look inspired me ; for I turned to Ould, and with 
a coolness that amazed myself, said : * Very well, we are ready.'" 

With this, the visitors shook Javins's hand, bidding 
him good-bye, and then, attended by Judge Onld, they 
got out of the hotel; something being said about the 
hotel bill, and exchanging greenbacks for Confederate 
money as they passed out. These matters adjusted in 



554 VERY TIRED— VERY THANKFUL. 

some way, they passed to the street, where they found 
"Jack" with the mule team and ambulance. The sight 
of these had a wonderfully reassuring effect, as up to 
that time Mr. Gilmore had considered himself "jugged" 
sure enough. The visitors, piloted by Judge Ould, 
visited Libby prison, Castle Thunder, and the hos- 
pitals where the wounded prisoners were kept. At 
five o'clock they separated from Judge Ould, bidding 
him a kindly good-bye, as doubtless it was mainly due 
to the Judge that the visitors were permitted to " go 
their way." 

In the ambulance drawn by the mule-team, and 
"Jack" for driver, the visitors were conveyed to the 
point where they first entered it, and from thence, ac- 
companied by Captain Hatch with a flag, approached 
the Union lines, where they arrived just as the sun 
was going down. A young officer rode over from the 
nearest Union picket station, and was forthwith sent to 
General Foster for a pair of horses, which being fur- 
nished, Colonel Jaquess and Mr. Gilmore arrived at 
General Foster's tent a half hour later. They took 
supper with General Foster, and soon after started to 
General Butler's head-quarters, arriving there by ten 
o'clock P. M., very tired ; but, provided with " downy " 
cots to recline upon, they rested and were "thankful, 
devoutly thankful, that we were once again under the 
folds of the old flag." 

The tourists returned in safety to the North, and 
Colonel Jaquess reported the result of his mission to 
President Lincoln, who received with lively satisfaction 
this authentic and significant declaration, direct from 
the lips of the rebel chieftain, that no terms of peace 
short of absolute independence would be accepted or 



VALUABLE SERVICES. 555 

considered. Mr. Lincoln was too shrewd a politician 
not to realize that this positive declaration completely 
upset the platform of the Peace Party, then prosecut- 
ing the Presidential campaign on the false issue of re- 
storing the Union by an armistice and negotiation. 
Measures were promptly taken to insure the widest 
publicity to the statement of the Confederate President. 
Newspaper reports of the trip and its leading incidents, 
laying special stress on the vital point, were at once 
published in New York, and instantly telegraphed to 
the press of the whole country. The Atlantic Monthly 
for September contained the Gilmore version of the 
interview, and had an enormous sale. The rebel papers 
in Richmond and elsewhere took hold of the matter 
with vigor, and, unable to deny the truthfulness of the 
report, contented themselves with bitterly criticising 
the Confederate authorities for allowing themselves to 
be " hoodwinked by a couple of Yankee spies." 

By the special order of President Lincoln, Colonel 
Jaquess was given an extended leave of absence from 
the army, and at his special request the colonel actively 
engaged in the Presidential campaign then in progress. 
He addressed large audiences day and evening in all 
the Northern States from Maine to Michigan, and wher- 
ever his story was told, it had a marked effect in con- 
vincing doubting patriots of the inexorable fact that no 
peace was possible until the rebellion had been sup- 
pressed. The value of his services was gratefully ac- 
knowledged by the Republican National Committee, and 
by the several State committees. He was in demand 
everywhere, and his utterances were multiplied thou- 
sands of times by reports of his speeches in the press, 
which were widely copied. 



556 ENGAGEMENTS SINCE THE WAR. 

After the election, in November, 1864, Colonel 
Jaquess, still on leave of absence, retired to his home 
at Quincy, Illinois, for a few weeks of much needed 
rest, preparatory to his expected return to his regi- 
ment, then in Georgia. Here another order reached 
him, calling him again to the East on important secret 
service, which occupied his time during the remainder 
of the winter, and required him to travel through sev- 
eral Northern States. Wherever he went, as soon as 
his identity became known, he was importuned to lec- 
ture for the benefit of Sanitary Commissions and Sol- 
diers' Aid Societies. He nearly always complied, and 
thus his eloquent tongue was kept constantly and use- 
fully employed, and the story of the Richmond trip 
had other thousands of eager listeners. 

In April, 1865, Colonel Jaquess returned to Quincy, 
and in that city, on the eighteenth of that month, he 
personally performed the marriage ceremon}' which 
united his only daughter, Margaret, to Henry A. Castle, 
late sergeant-major of 73d Illinois (wounded at Stone 
River), and afterward captain of Company A, 137th 
Illinois. 

Immediately after the wedding, the colonel returned 
to the regiment, rejoining it at Nashville, and remaining 
there until the muster out. 

After the muster out of the regiment, Colonel Jaquess 
served for several months in an important position in the 
Freed men's Bureau, after which he engaged in cotton- 
planting on an extensive scale, first in Arkansas, and 
then in Northern Mississippi. He continued in this 
vocation with varying success for ten years. Finally, 
about 1876, he became interested in the promotion of 
some financial schemes, which necessitated several visits 



ATTENDED THE REUNION. 557 

to England, and finally led to his almost continuous 
residence there. 

It was in London, in September, 1889, that the 
colonel received the urgent request of his old com- 
panions of the 73d Regiment to attend their third 
annual reunion at Fairmount, Vermilion County, Illinois, 
on October 8th and 9th of that year. Dropping all his 
occupations, he made the trip of four thousand miles from 
London direct to Fairmount, for the sole purpose of at- 
tending this reunion, remained in Fairmount twenty-four 
hours, and started on the return trip of four thousand 
miles to London, which city he reached in time for an im- 
perative legal engagement on October 24th. It need not 
be said that the seventy-five or eighty survivors of the 
old regiment gathered at Fairmount on this twenty- 
seventh anniversary of the battle of Perryville, thor- 
oughly appreciated the devotion of their old commander, 
and heartily enjoyed his visit. They welcomed him 
with tears of joy, and escorted him to the place of as- 
semblage, where, in the presence of a large concourse 
of citizens, he delivered the following impressive and 
instructive address : 

4 ' Comrades of the 73d Illinois Volunteers, — Since being 
informed of your intended reunion, I have traveled quite four 
thousand miles, by land and ocean, to meet with you. You have 
had other and similar meetings since last we met, but circumstances 
prevented me from meeting with you in person ; I have always 
been with you in soul, mind, and heart, all the same, and I now 
feel myself most happy in meeting you after so long a separation. 

"A little more than twenty-seven years ago, in the dark days 
of the Kepublic, we responded to the country's call, and were 
mustered into the service, and hurried off to the front without drill 
or instructions as to the duties we were to perform. At that time 
Ave were a thousand strong, a thousand able-bodied and resolute 
men. When we had completed our work, and stacked our arms 



558 COLONEL JAQUESS'S ADDRESS. 

preparatory to muster out, we were a small baud, less than one- 
third of our original number. We went out raw recruits in the 
volunteer service; we returned veterans, having learned the arts ot 
war, and been drilled and thoroughly disciplined on many hard- 
fought fields. Since our muster out, our ranks have been thinned 
by death and disease, chiefly the result of wounds and disabilities 
contracted in the line of duty, and by exposures incident to the 
fortunes of war. 

" While enjoying the festivities of this most delightful occasion, 
we must not, rather we can not, forget or be unmindful of our 
worthy dead. They responded, as we who survive them did, to 
our country's call, moved with alacrity and cheerful steps to the 
front and to the position of danger, shared with us our hard 
marches, our hard fare, and our hard fighting, and proved the full 
measure of their devotion by laying down their lives for the sacred 
cause for which we fought. We gave our best services, they gave 
their lives to save the life of the Nation. Their memory is sacred to 
us, and hallowed by a thousand cherished recollections ; and we, 
their surviving comrades and a grateful country, can never forget 
wlud they did. But the memory of their deeds and devotion will 
be held up as worthy examples of personal courage, and patriotism 
worthy the imitation and emulation of our youth, and will stand, 
for all time to come, more imperishable than marble or granite, to 
tell future generations what we have done. 

" Compatriots of the Seventy-third, I greet you, I congratulate 
you, and if I were called on to write a history or a eulogy of the 
regiment, it would be simply this, viz.: You did your duty ; and the 
only honor I should claim for myself would be that I looked on 
while you did it. What you did, you did well, and at the oppor- 
tune moment; it was so well done that it could not have been 
better done. While you went out undisciplined, you returned vet- 
erans with greatly reduced numbers, having been trained and dis- 
ciplined in the line of duty and service, and drilled in the conflicts 
of the battle-fields. You went out a united band. You had 
learned to appreciate the fact that in union there is strength, 
'united we stand, divided we fall.' One common impulse impelled 
you on ; a single motive guided your actions at all times and under 
all circumstances. Want of harmony was unknown among you ; 
selfishness could not live among you ; never was union more com- 
plete in family circle or elsewhere. 

"You entered the service of the country a 'patriotic band, no 
motive prompting you but that which flows from love of country. 



JUSTICE AND HONOR. 559 

You sought no promotion and accepted none, save such as came 
to you of right in the line of duty. You fought for the cause 
that lay near your hearts, and for that inheritance for which our 
fathers fought, won, and bequeathed to us,, and under the convic- 
tion that if the Union of these States were broken up and the 
country lost, to the cause of freedom all is lost. 

"In the early days of the Republic, philosophers and statesmen 
of Europe had predicted, under the influence of the thought and sen- 
timent of the day, that a government of the people, by the people, for 
the people, about to be undertaken on a large scale in the United 
States, was destined to result in a splendid failure ; that a coun- 
try of such immense resources would be able to resist any possible 
pressure from without, but when internal feuds and dissensions 
should arise, as they certainly would, iu the progress of events, 
disintegration, decay, and anarchy would follow as natural con- 
sequences. 

"More than a hundred years of successful experiment, and 
the grand results of the late war prove the fallacy of these con- 
jectures. 

"You went out thoroughly imbued with sentiments of justice 
and honor. We were not then, nor are we now, called upon to 
advocate or defend the cause of war on general principles. Tak- 
ing into account the full measure of the horrors of war— and its 
horrors can not be described nor exaggerated — still there are some 
things worse than war. The life of a nation, to which is com- 
mitted the dearest interests of humanity, if assailed, must be 
defended by all the means and resources of the nation; and in our 
case, the national honor and the existence of all that was dear to 
humanity, was defended, vindicated, and saved by the prompt ac- 
tion of the citizen-soldier. Justice and honor were prominent among 
the mottoes inscribed upon our banners, — justice to that posterity 
which must come after us, and whose rights and interests we must 
not forget, and whose reasonable expectations we dare not disap- 
point ; the honor of the human race, the honor of the American 
continent, from the days of Columbus — from 1776 to all time to 
come — all these and much more were involved. 

"You went out at the country's call, knowing that war meant 
killing, and you went to kill or to be killed ; but you went out a 
merciful hand. War and mercy seldom meet on the same field of 
strife, and yet when you had won the hard-fought field — as you gener-, 
ally did — an act of vengeance or cruelty was unknown among you ; 
you never struck a fallen foe, or even reproached a captured 



560 MATTERS OF ASTONISHMENT. 

enemy. On the contrary, you divided rations with your prisoner, 
and gave him, in his destitution, of your scanty wardrobe. You 
made him forget that he was a captive among strangers, much 
less among enemies. Many acts of mercy were visible in your 
acts and movements as soldiers, while unnecessary severity was 
unknown in camp, country, or field ; and while you fought as only 
Americans can fight — fought successfully, bravely fought — when 
you stacked your arms at the last, no blood-stains were upon 
your armor; in the palm of each and every hand was written, 
and on every brow was inscribed, in legible characters, ' Blessed 
are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.' 

" You Avent out a God-fearing band. No soldier of the 73d was 
ever accused of cowardice ; none ever flinched or faltered in the 
line of duty, or turned aside from or shirked responsibility. One 
fear only was ever present with you, and that was the fear of God. 
You were thoroughly imbued with the written sentiment that, ' If 
I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.' In 
one of London's great centers is a monument erected to one of 
England's greatest soldiers, General Havelock. I have had occa- 
sion to say to more than one Englishman, while approving all the 
honors lavished upon the great Christian soldier, that I could show 
them a whole regiment of Havelocks in our late war in America. 

" We claim no honors which belong to others, but we do claim 
what is ours of right to claim. I was surprised in reading General 
Sheridan's Memoirs, with the very meager mention made of the 
73d, and the more so since it was the gallant conduct and fighting 
qualities of the regiment chiefly that brought to him promotion. 

"Three things have been matter of astonishment to soldiers 
and statesmen in Europe as to the volunteer service in the United 
States, viz.: 

"First. The promptness with which our people responded to 
the country's call, and the alacrity with which they hastened to 
positions of imminent danger. 

" Second. The efficiency with which they discharged the duties 
and responsibility of trained soldiers ; and 

" Third. The willing cheerfulness with which the volunteer, 
now become a veteran soldier, resumed the duties and vocations 
of citizenship. 

"As to the first mystery, it only shows what self-government 
will do for a people capable of governing themselves. We may 
speak of the American citizen only as we would speak of those 



SACRED MEMORIES. 561 

great physical outlines of our great country, and after which God 
has fashioned the great souls of the past, present, and future of 
the Nation; viz., the grand prairie, the Mississippi River, aud the 
Rocky Mountains. The second is solved by the fact of our good 
sense, which adapts us to any and all responsibilities. And the 
second mystery is explained further and made clear in the fact 
that a man with a rifle in hand, who can hit a squirrel's head in 
the tallest tree that grows in his native wood, will not fail to locate 
his bullets in the right place. Such skill was possessed by a heavy 
per cent of the 73d. 

"Third: when your services were no longer required at the 
front, and they were needed at the ballot-box, you returned of 
choice to civil life, full of the grandest impulses of which the 
human heart is capable, and an appreciation of family, home, 
friends, and happy country unknown to you, and which your army 
experiences taught you to enjoy. You entered upon a new life, 
and a grateful country welcomed your return, and caught the fire 
of your enthusiasm, and, inspired with new life and renewed 
energy, has advanced in all the arts of civilization unknown before 
in the history of the world — to all of which your services have 
furnished their full share of influence. 

" Compatriots of the 73d Illinois Volunteers, your former 
colonel greets you with a heart full of love and admiration. A 
thousand sacred memories cluster about me at this time — beloved 
memories, which lapse of time will brighten and strengthen, but 
can never deface or obliterate. What our gallant regiment achieved, 
you did, and did so well and so thoroughly that it could not have 
been better done than you did it. 

" Seventy-third has become a sacred number with me, whether 
on the street, or room in hotel, or elsewhere ; it always fills me 
with pleasant memories, and with delightful emotions. If I see a 
locomotive on the track numbered 73, drawing a train, passenger 
or freight, it matters not how long or heavy, up a grade, or down 
hill, I say in my heart, that train will make the trip ; 73 wins 
every time and in all places.* 



* Colonel Jaquess was invited to officiate in opening a Church ba- 
zaar in London. After the opening ceremonies, a committee took 
charge of the American colonel, escorted him through the place, 
pointed out to him a beautiful stall furnished, and managed by the 
Princess of Wales, and claimed the colonel's special attention to a 
most charmingly beautiful chair, with a great deal of ornamental work 

36 



562 OUR FALLEN COMRADES. 

" Comrades of the 73d, I learned to love and admire you when 
you were covered with the sweat and dust of labor, and when your 
faces were black with the powder and smoke of battle. 

" Your noble deeds have passed into history, and nothing that 
I could say of your courage and bravery could add the slightest 
luster to the brilliant wreaths that encircle your brows, or sparkle 
on your uniforms, or adorn your persons. Our fallen comrades 
have hallowed their memories by what they did side by side with 
us, and by an act beyond which no act of patriotism can possibly 
go, in that last act of loving devotion in which they yielded up 
their precious lives. When a monument of marble or granite 
shall be erected to memorialize the deeds of the 73d, let the highest 
niche in that polished shaft be devoted to the loving memory of 
our worthy dead; and only a little below that, let the private sol- 
dier's name be inscribed, next the commissioned officers', rank, 
field, and staff, and last place your colonel's name where it belongs, 
in some obscure corner." 

Note. — For many of the facts, and much of the statement, con- 
tained in this chapter, we are indebted to Captain Henry A. Castle, of 
St. Paul, Minn. W. H. N. 

May 28, 1890. 



on it, worked by the princess's own hands, and requested him to take 
a chance in it. There were some two hundred chances of ten shillings, 
or some two dollars and fifty cents each. The colonel yielded to the 
earnest solicitation, wrote his name opposite the number 73 on the 
paper, and next day was informed by letter that he had drawn the 
chair. The colonel says 73 did it. 




'^S^y^s^^S^j^M^ ^J5=5ijKyJ3S^JJ>S5j|pJ^ 



A0 EXACT DUPLICATE COPY OF CHAPTER IX 



IN THE HISTORY OF 



U 



^he fFeaQhei? RegirT^ePife,' 



? « 



SEVENTY-THIRD ILLINOIS VOLUNTEER INFANTRY. 

Among the number of topics treated in Chapter IX 
is that of TflE 6RI6IN^Ii BUMPER, by Capt. G. W. Patten, 
St. Elmo, Tenn., who is quite sure he can establish 
the claim that the term "BUMMER" originated in 
Company B. 

& 1 s 



fl|VIONG OTHEH TOPICS Af*E : 

Experience in Prison early in 1863. Lieut. Lawrence. 
Providential Eseape from the Enemy. R. M. Hoskinson. 
P^eminiseenee of liineoln, 1860. W. M. Thaler. 
Rail-making 1 , Foraging — tcuo aeeounts. E. S. Turner. 
Captured, Recaptured, and Surrendered Bible. C. W. Keely. 
Experience in Prison, 18 months, of John L,. Hesser. 
Prison Eseape, Supplemental Sketeh. W. H. Newlin. 



I 

Send for Chapter IX. Much of the matter in it is of general, some 
'storical, interest. Paper cover. Price, 25 cents single copy, post- 
six copies $1.00. Address, inclosing P. O. Money-order, 

W. H. NEWLIN, 

Springfield, III. 




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